Hostage describes tragic day

STOCKTON — An armed robber entered the now-shuttered Bank of the West on Thornton Road yelling for everyone to put their hands up.

He pointed a gun directly at a teller, the woman described the frightening ordeal in an interview. The gunman ordered her to stay still.

More details in the bank robbery that shook the city and caused the tragic death of hostage, wife and mother Misty Holt-Singh, are revealed in search warrant returns filed by Stockton police. They include victim witness accounts and an interview with the girlfriend of defendant Jaime Ramos.

The Record has chosen not to name the victims.

Ramos, 19, is the sole surviving suspect in the July 16 bank takeover that turned into a hostage situation, a subsequent hour-long vehicle pursuit with gunfire and a final deadly shootout at Thornton Road near Otto Drive.

According to the bank teller’s statement, after the gunman zeroed in on her, a second man entered the bank behind him with a shotgun. Police later determined that weapon was an AK-47 assault rifle.

The second gunman shouted for everyone to put their hands up and proceeded to walk directly to the vault.

Then a third man walked in, pushing a security guard into the bank at gunpoint.

After the man in the vault came out about 10 to 15 minutes later, the suspect who held up a gun at the teller ordered her to go with the assailants. On the way out, she noticed the group had also grabbed the bank manager and a customer — later identified as Holt-Singh — at gunpoint and pushed the three women into the bank manager’s (sports utility) vehicle.

According to the teller, the manager was ordered to drive northbound with the third suspect — who had pushed the security guard — in the front passenger seat. The teller was in the back passenger side and Holt-Singh was next to her.

“Not soon after, one of the suspects accidentally shot (the manager) in the leg,” according to the affidavit prepared by Det. Miroslava Moreno. The gunmen told her to get out of the car.

“As she fell out, (the suspect who was in the front passenger side) got into the driver's seat and continued to flee from officers,” Moreno reported.

The second suspect — the one who had been in the vault — is the one who first started shooting out of the back window at officers.

The teller “was very scared and did not scream,” according to the search warrant. The woman fell asleep during police questioning, but not before telling them she recognized the robber who initially walked in and the one who held up the security guard as the same men who held up the bank a few months back. They wore the same fake facial hair as the previous robbers.

But she could not identify the third suspect as having been involved in the other robbery.

She referred to a robbery at the branch on Jan. 31, in which a security guard was tied up and employees were forced to open the vault. The thieves fled in an employee vehicle in that incident, as well.

The search warrant documents do not divulge how the teller escaped her captors. Prior reports indicate she either jumped or was thrown out of the SUV.

That day, 33 officers used their weapons and fired more than 600 rounds of ammunition at the fleeing vehicle — most of the shots came during the encounter near Otto Drive. Suspects Alex Martinez, 27, and Gilbert Renteria, 30, were killed.

Holt-Singh was struck 10 times by police fire as Ramos used her as a shield, police said.

Police are looking for a fourth person — a man or woman who drove the assailants to the bank in a black 1997 Buick Century sedan.

Authorities have not released a description of the fourth suspect, but interviews in the search warrants offer some details.

The security guard on duty that day told police he saw a Latina exit the back of the car when the three men got out. She re-entered the vehicle and drove away, he said.

The guard described her as being in her 20s, with dark shoulder length hair and wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans.

He said the robbers zip-tied his hands behind his back after they took him inside and ordered him to the ground.

“They first took (the manager) as a hostage and walked out of the bank,” he said a search warrant return filed by Det. Nicky Ezell. “They came back inside and took two more hostages. Once they left, a customer cut off the zip ties.”

The Buick sedan was found two days after the robbery, abandoned in the 3200 block of West Creek Drive.

The car is registered to Ramos’ 18-year-old girlfriend, but she has not been named a suspect.

Carina Cervantes, who lives with Ramos and his parents, said in a July interview “we sold it; we sold it, um about two weeks ago.”

When asked who she sold it to, Cervantes responded, “Jaime was the one that sold it actually,” adding she didn't know who had purchased the car.

“She said she was not the one who dropped them off and she didn't know they used her car,” Ezell reported in a search warrant.

Cervantes said Ramos handled the transaction and paperwork and she repeatedly reiterated she was not involved. She said Ramos had been driving the car and she had purchased another one.

Cervantes said she hadn't seen the car for weeks. Police released her after she provided a DNA sample.

Ramos is currently in jail custody, facing 35 charges, including three counts of murder for allegedly provoking the fatal shootings; multiple counts of attempted murder for injuring the other hostages and shooting at officers; and a number of other charges.

Ramos is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 15 for further arraignment.

The bank branch has since closed down as the financial institution had planned prior to the July robbery.

Meanwhile, Stockton Crime Stoppers, the FBI and the Bank of the West are offering a combined $50,000 reward for information that will lead to the arrest of the fourth suspect.

Tips can be called in to the FBI at (209) 474-8293, the Stockton Police Department at (209) 937-8377, or Crime Stoppers at (209) 946-0600.

Contact reporter Jennie Rodriguez-Moore at (209) 943-8564 or jrodriguez@recordnet.com. Follow her at recordnet.com/courtsblog or on Twitter @TheRecordCourts.

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